Chery names its first bakkie Grootman
Chery has named its first bakkie for South Africa Grootman, a name chosen by South Africans. The model is planned to make its local debut in the first quarter of 2027.
- Product News
- 2 October 2026
Barloworld has confirmed the planned unbundling of its car rental and leasing business via a JSE listing.
Zeda Limited, the new name for the unbundled business, will be listed on the main board of the JSE on 13 December 2022. The group has a long-term licence agreement with the Avis Budget group to operate Avis and Budget brands in Southern Africa.
Barloworld Group CEO, Dominic Sewela, says the unbundling represents a completion of Barloworld’s non-core divestiture programme and will result in a more streamlined business whose strategy and capital allocation are focused on the industrial equipment, services and consumer industries’ verticals.
Zeda Group CEO, Ramasela Ganda, says this is the beginning of an exciting chapter for the new group as it pivots from Barloworld with a solid foundation.
“Being a standalone business will enable better focused execution of our integrated mobility strategy, which caters to the evolving customer’s needs in our markets of operation. We provide an array of mobility solutions, including car rental, fleet management and leasing as well as car sales in 10 countries.
“Through these operations, which have downstream benefits for the southern African economy and which play a vital role in key value chains and sectors, Zeda demonstrates its role as a catalyst of economic growth,” she says.
The group’s car rental business operates under the brand name Avis Budget and focuses exclusively on rentals that do not exceed 12 months. Its diversified customer segment base consists of private sector, public sector, insurance replacement business, inbound market, domestic leisure market and subscription.
Avis Fleet provides a range of outsourced mobility solutions to private and public sector entities, including leasing, fleet management, maintenance and service plan solutions, fuel management, traffic fine management, accident management and vehicle telematics.
Avis Car Sales sells used cars from its rental and leasing businesses to retail customers and wholesalers through the 14 Avis Car Sales dealerships, wholesale outlets, its online channel or through the independent auction site, www.avisauction.co.za.
Zeda claims that once the group is listed, it will be the only integrated mobility solutions provider of its kind in southern Africa.
South Africa’s new vehicle market recorded aggregate domestic sales of 61 645 units in September 2026, an increase of 12.7% compared with the 54 706 units sold during September 2025.
SA Auto Week 2026 is scheduled to take place in eThekwini, KwaZulu-Natal, from 13 to 16 October, with the event marking five years of SA Auto Week.
South Africa’s domestic new-vehicle market strengthened in September, recording 61 645 sales, its highest monthly total of 2026. Sales increased by 3 747 vehicles, or 6.5%, from August’s originally reported total and were 12.7% higher than in September 2025.